Sunderland held by battling Canaries

Sunderland remain rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table after drawing 0-0 with Norwich City.

The Black Cats were looking to build on a shock midweek win in the Capital One Cup against Chelsea by earning some much needed points in the Premier League, as they hosted the Canaries.

The start of the first half was poor, with Lee Cattermole blasting a shot over that looked more like a rugby conversion. However, with half time approaching Sunderland improved with Jozy Altidore finding himself in space, only to take too long over his shot and moments later Emanuele Giaccherini pulled the ball back to Phil Bardsley, whose shot was saved by John Ruddy at the near post.

With the tempo raised, Norwich went straight up to the other end, Gary Hooper cracking a goal-bound shot from 25 yards that Vito Mannone had to parry away for a corner.

After the break, Fabio Borini squandered a good chance by shooting straight at Ruddy after a poor clearance. Hooper, who has scored three goals in his last four games, wasted an opportunity as he headed wide when he was unmarked at the back post.

Sunderland continued to press with Steven Fletcher shooting wide from a delivery by Seb Larsson and Bardsley heading straight at Mannone.

However, the best chance of the game went to Ki Sung-Yueng, the man who scored the midweek winner against Chelsea, after Ruddy ran out of his goal to chase down Borini, who pulled back for the South Korean who shot over with the goal at his mercy.

During injury-time Sunderland had an appeal for handball turned down when Adam Johnson’s cross struck Sebastian Bassong on the hip, which the Black Cats claimed as handball.

Seconds later Wes Brown jumped into a reckless and unneeded challenge with Ricky van Wolfswinkel which resulted in the Sunderland defender receiving a red card which rules him out of the busy festive period.

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